


Let Me Teach You About TREES

by Xenafox



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-01
Updated: 2012-12-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 12:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/621894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xenafox/pseuds/Xenafox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kotetsu takes Barnaby out to teach him about finding the perfect Christmas tree. Barnaby is like "wat..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Me Teach You About TREES

**Author's Note:**

> Set in a timeline where they engaged, from the story "Take My Whole Life Too" which runs after "To Light the Shadows on Your Face".

“Isn’t this something we can do online? Point, click, delivery?”

“Bunny!”

“I don’t really want to get up and go Christmas tree shopping! It’ll be a hassle!” Barnaby whined a little more than he may have usually, still warm in bed. Were it a call or work related, he’d had popped out of bed like a daisy. But no, they had to get up early just to take a drive to somewhere that sold REAL trees, which wasn’t conveniently just down the street. They had to get out of the heart of Sternbild a little for that, because Kotetsu wouldn’t pick out the ones already harvested, he just haaad to go to a Christmas tree farm.

There wasn’t room for such things right inside Sternbild.

“It’ll be worth it! You told me you know you never got to do it - so do it now! New tradition! Come on! Can you really say no to this?” He took Barnaby’s hand, making it release the blanket he was still grabbing, and held it up. He singled out the finger that held Barnaby’s engagement ring, and made him look at it while he gave his own lip wibble. “Bunnnny we’re engaged, now we have to do these things and start traditions and all that.”

What a cheap trick! …And it worked. Barnaby looked at the ring and then Kotetsu’s hopeful face. He shivered slightly at the chill in the air, one Kotetsu wasn’t experiencing since he had beaten Barnaby out of bed for once and gotten into a sweater, a really, really cozy looking sweater…

Actually, Barnaby would have liked nothing more than to pull Kotetsu back down to bed and snuggle into that warm sweater.

But he gave in. “Alright, alright. I guess I should try. I won’t know if I like it until I do.”

Kotetsu kissed the ring and beamed at him. “Awesome!

———-

Truth be told, Barnaby had enjoyed everything so far. He was so unsure about celebrating Christmas, but Kotetsu had pulled out those mugs and sappy-talked him into it and Barnaby found he was glad he’d listened. Christmastime with Kotetsu was nice, and he had meant it when he said they could cuddle under the big blanket and have their cocoa together. Barnaby wasn’t totally on board with EVERYTHING: The Christmas underwear incident had been pretty jarring, but even those were growing on him.

With the cold morning air nipping at his nose as they stood in front of a field lined with pine trees, Barnaby began to wonder if they had encountered something that really was no fun. It was cold, their were too many trees, and the field was huge. He didn’t want to know how much they were paying for one either even if money wasn’t a problem. Trees in Oriental Town sounded cheap. In Sternbild, they were easily three times the price, maybe even four.

They were another thing to be sold, like most everything that existed at Christmastime and Barnaby had never really known how to feel about it. All his Christmas feelings were rooted in tragedy, not consumerism.

“Oh oh I like this one!”

“Cool. Chop it down.”

Kotetsu ran up to a somewhat short and fat pine tree, examining it. He glared over his shoulder. “It’s not that easy, Bunny.”

“How is it not easy? If you like a tree, get it, and we’ll throw all the lights and stuff on it later.”

“You don’t get the art of picking out a Christmas tree, do you?”

Barnaby opened his mouth to respond, but stopped, tilting his head. “What do you mean?” he asked and then covered his cold nose with one gloved hand. He couldn’t understand how Kotetsu managed to not wear any. His coat couldn’t be that thick and he wore his usual hat, as opposed to a winter one. At least he had a real scarf.

“Wow I- Okay!” Kotetsu’s eyes were shining with excitement, and he walked over to Barnaby so he could throw an arm around him. “You are about to learn a lot!”

“I’m sure.”

“You are!” Kotetsu took his free hand and dragged Barnaby back to the first tree. “This one is nice enough, it’s fat, and it’s sort of full. But feel the branches,” he said, guiding Barnaby’s hands to various branches.

“So? They feel like branches.” Was he supposed to touch them and feel the spirit of Christmas in his heart when he found the perfect tree? Because he was NOT buying into that one.

“They’re weak. They bend too easy. I have ornaments that’ll weigh them down way too much, and their hooks will slip off. I don’t want my glass ornaments to break or for some of my fancy ones to be laying around on the floor.”

Barnaby was genuinely surprised. Kotetsu was not stupid at all, but it was always a bit of a shock when Barnaby realized how much he thought things out. No doubt someone had taught Kotetsu the tree stuff to begin with, but he still remembered it. “I see. Okay. What else is wrong with this on?”

“Aside from being a little short? Nothing really. I’d like a little taller and I need more of a top branch for my- OUR- star!”

“Oh…” Barnaby didn’t have much to respond with, and he let himself be pulled along as Kotetsu walked with him through a row of trees. A romantic walk would be nice, but not even a minute later, Kotetsu was dragging him to a taller tree that looked nice.

“Is this the one?”

Kotetsu laughed. “No. Well, closer. This one is tall, but it’s not full,” he said, squeezing his hand. “I need strong branches, and I need a decent number of them. These ones are spaced out which makes it look full, but it’s not.”

“How many ornaments do you have?” Barnaby asked, shooting him a frown.

“A decent amount. And we’re going to get many more.” Kotetsu kissed him on the cheek and briefly nuzzled him, chuckling as Barnaby tried to lean into the warmth. Man, his nose hurt.

But again, he understood. They wanted a strong tree, and one that had enough branches. There were ornaments and lights, and maybe other decorations. “I get it.”

“Good.” Kotetsu brought him just a few feet away to another tree. It was wonderful looking, tall and full.

“Is this the one?” Barnaby asked, maybe a little too excitedly. He wished he could have toned that down.

“Nah. Close.” Kotetsu let go of his hand, and wandered to the side of the tree. “I saw this one from a little ways away. You see, it’s full there, but half this tree is kind of bare.”

“Oh.” A lopsided tree, sort of. Barnaby sighed and followed Kotetsu to examine it. Yep - there weren’t many branches on the other side. “I know, we need it full all around.”

“Not exactly.” Kotetsu fiddled with his scarf. “You see, I think we’ll need to have it against a wall on one side. It’s okay to have a bit of a bare side for that. We’ll still decorate it, don’t want to leave any of the tree out. That’s not right.”

“What, it has a Christmas destiny?”

Kotetsu was quiet, and then he offered Barnaby a small smile. “I know you think its stupid, but yes. You don’t harvest the tree only to decorate two thirds of it, leaving a side that doesn’t get to glitter and sparkle like the rest. It feels- well, it feels cruel.”

Barnaby couldn’t help but feel it sounded cruel to him too…even if it was pathetic. Trees didn’t have emotions! Despite that, one side remaining dark and bare while the other was brilliantly lit up was just too sad. “Yea, I think I see.”

He was rewarded with another cheek kiss.

They renewed their search, Barnaby feeling more into it than he had waking up and during the ride there. It was fun. He liked learning things after all and he never expected there were any sort of guidelines or worries to keep in mine when picking out a tree. He smiled as he tested various trees, seeing if they had the strength for what sounded like Kotetsu’s army of Christmas ornaments and trinkets. He wondered what kind of ornament he would get for the tree.

He knew without a doubt that a tiger ornament had to already be on there and a bunny one would follow whether he bought it or not. Maybe he’d get a snowman, or a little cat in a Santa hat. “When are we getting more ornaments?” he asked, stopping abruptly as Kotetsu walked ahead. He touched the pine needles on the tree beside him, rolling thoughts around in his head.

“Today! We’ll need to let the tree stand for a little bit, it’s sort of wet from that little bit of snow, so once I trim it in our private area of the garage, I’ll prop it up and we can go get some stuff.”

“We have to trim it?”

“I’ll do it,” Kotetsu said with a chuckle, turning to face Barnaby. He sort of froze, just staring.

“I-I can help, just show me how.”

“One person job, gotta trim the bottom a bit usually…oh Bunny…”

“What?” Barnaby asked, nervous. Kotetsu was giving him a really weird look.

“YOU’VE FOUND IT!” Kotetsu yelled and ran at him. Before Barnaby could decide whether to dodge or run away, Kotetsu had already slammed into him with a hug, nearly knocking him to the ground.

Barnaby was pleasantly surprised, hugging Kotetsu back. “What?” he asked, perplexed.

Kotetsu leaned back. “You found it! The perfect tree!” he said, looking at the tree Barnaby touched before hugging him more.

Barnaby stared over Kotetsu’s shoulder at the tree and actually touched the branches, testing. They were firm, strong, and it was a tall-ish tree. One side was flatter than the rest of it, which was generously loaded with branches for hanging shiny things from.

“I did find it, didn’t I?”

“Yes! Oh Bunny, I love you,” Kotetsu murmured in his ear, squeezing him tightly.

Barnaby blushed and tried to speak, flustered. He hadn’t actually done anything! But he didn’t push Kotetsu off, instead waiting for him and following instructions to hold the trunk of the tree tightly while Kotetsu took a saw to the bottom.

Kotetsu laid right down on the ground as Barnaby fought urges to run away and find a sink, his hand sticky with sap from the very second he held the tree. “Doing good down there?” he asked Kotetsu.

“Doing just fine!” Kotetsu assured him, and Barnaby smiled despite himself. He was having a good time. Kotetsu’s hugs and kisses made it all not just bearable but fun. It was something he could see himself doing the next year, which filled his heart with joy - he didn’t always think about it but the fact was that they were going to have a future together, which meant he could say ‘next year let’s get a bigger one’ or anything like that.

He was so happy thinking about it that he didn’t realized Kotetsu was done until he was standing in front of him.

“Bunny?”

“Huh? Oh….” Barnaby stared at him dumbly, wishing he could push up his glasses. One hand was too sticky, the other was cold and jammed in his pocket.

“You ready to help me carry this to the car and get it secured on the top?”

“Oh…yea.”

“You okay?” Kotetsu asked, looking concerned.

“Yes.” Barnaby smiled again. “Yes, Kotetsu, I am. This is fun.”

Kotetsu smiled too, looking down for a moment. “Good.”

“Yea.”

“So…you ready, then?”

Barnaby nodded. “I am,” he said. Carefully, he kept his grip near the front of the tree with Kotetsu behind him holding the other end. It felt light with them both holding it, or maybe Barnaby was just too happy to care.

As the two walked their new-found tree to the car, snow began to fall and Barnaby forgot about his nose hurting.


End file.
